Konrad Zuse Colloquium

& Z23 Mainframe Dedication

 

Konrad Zuse (1910 - 1995)

 

2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Oct 1, 1999

NASA Ames Research Center

Moffett Training and Conference Center

Mountain View, California 94035

Konrad Zuse is largely unknown in North America but is a celebrated computer pioneer in his native Germany. Zuse developed functioning program-controlled computing machinery as early as 1936 and went on to form a successful European computer business in the 1950s. This colloquium brings together three distinguished Zuse scholars in an informal gathering designed to bring Zuse's remarkable accomplishments to a wider audience.  The colloquium takes place on October 1, 1999 at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California--in the heart of Silicon Valley. There is no fee for the event however, in order to be admitted onto the NASA facility, an RSVP is mandatory.

 

The colloquium is followed by a reception at Computer History Museum's visible storage exhibit area, located one block from the Conference Center, at which the recent donation of one of Zuse's mainframe computers, the Z23, will be formally recognized. This reception is hosted by the German Consulate-General of San Francisco.

Dr. Paul Ceruzzi

Curator of Information Technology

Smithsonian Institution

 

Dr. Ceruzzi will be discussing the early work of Konrad Zuse in the context of the invention of the digital computer, 1935-1950.

Professor Raul Rojas

Professor of Computer Science

Freie Universität Berlin

 

Professor Rojas will be speaking about Zuse's early machines (the Z1 - Z4) and will be demonstrating a reconstruction of the adding unit of the Z3 made of relays, which he is also kindly donating to Computer History Museum. (Click on "Simulations," link is in German).

Privatdozent Dr.-Ing. Horst Zuse

Professor of Computer Science

Technische Universität Berlin

(And son of Konrad Zuse)

 

Dr. Zuse will address Konrad Zuse's later machines as well as the Zuse company. An extended paper by Horst Zuse on his father's life and contributions is available here.

Historical Note:

In March of 1984, Konrad Zuse gave a lecture at The Computer Museum in Boston discussing his work. For information on this lecture, click here.